Poliquin: Success this season for Syracuse football is a long way from definite

John Berry/The Post-Standard Doug Marrone is in his fourth year as head coach of the Syracuse University Orange, having fashioned records of 4-8, 8-5 and 5-7 and taken the team to one bowl game. With the 2012 season eight days away, Daryl Gross, the SU athletic director, insists that he has "complete confidence" in Marrone.

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Back on that December day in 2004 when he took his inaugural bow before his Central New York public, Daryl Gross more or less informed all of those in the room that he knew something that they did not.

No, he didn’t utter those exact words. Even Daryl wasn’t that brash. But Syracuse University’s new athletic director, freshly arrived from Southern California where his beloved Trojans played big-boy football, clearly inferred that our town’s days of mediocrity on the blocking-and-tackling front would soon be in full fade.

The Big East Conference, hardly a stone fortress, was there for the taking and -- you watch, we were pretty much told -- SU was about to storm the thing.

Well, seven campaigns have come and gone since Gross’ introductory press conference at Manley Field House and the Orange has fashioned a record of 27-57, has won nine league games and is generally believed, in year No. 8, to be better within its so-so conference than only those prodigal Owls of Temple.

The point is, patience has stopped being a virtue in these parts. Rather, it has become a necessity, a prerequisite, a blanky to get us safely to the basketball season. You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind . . . and you don’t mess around with any apparently silly notions of, oh, beating Pittsburgh in the fall. Not around here.

“I think the one thing one has to remember,” Daryl recently advised, “is that football is not normally a quick fix.”

Attached at the hip to social media, Gross, who speaks at someone’s request only on whim, was communicating via e-mail. But his message was unmistakable: Keep the faith (while channeling continental drift).

“I want you to know we have complete confidence in Doug Marrone’s leadership and vision,” submitted Daryl, who was referencing his head coach. “He knows what we need to have success and we are getting closer. Have we had challenges? Of course. Will we have more challenges? Yes, it’s part of the deal. Will we be able to compete consistently in the future? I totally believe so.”

According to most accounts, the arrival of that competitive (i.e., winning) future will likely be pushed back to some time on the other side of this 2012 campaign that will begin for Syracuse in the Carrier Dome against Northwestern on Sept 1.

SU has, after all, lost a 1,000-yard runner (Antwon Bailey) . . . its starting defensive ends (Chandler Jones and Mikhail Marinovich) . . . six receivers who caught a total of 149 balls (most notably Nick Provo and Van Chew) . . . its leading tackler and interceptor of passes (Phillip Thomas) . . . four of its top six scorers and all-purpose-yards guys (Dorian Graham, Bailey, Provo and Chew) . . . and its best offensive lineman, at least for a spell (the injured senior, Justin Pugh), from last year’s outfit.

Meanwhile, the Orange, which is coming off a season that ended with five consecutive losses, has been saddled with a non-conference schedule -- home against Northwestern and Stony Brook; on the road against USC, Minnesota and Missouri -- that has been anointed among the most arduous in the nation.

So, yeah. Daryl Gross was right. This program will have its challenges. And the first of them will be faced in eight days. But . . . wait.

Ryan Nassib, the fifth-year quarterback, is on pace to finish his Syracuse career with 750-plus pass completions, 60-plus touchdown passes and 8,000-plus passing yards — which would place him first, second and third, respectively, on the Orange’s all-time lists. Ashton Broyld, the versatile freshman whiz-bang from Henrietta, is SU’s Tim Tebow (and that’s a good thing). There is, reportedly, more team speed than we’ve seen up there on the Hill in a long while and, supposedly, less dissension than was found in the disgruntled ranks last fall.

And, guess what? While collectively decent, Northwestern, Stony Brook, Minnesota and Missouri won’t exactly come at the Orange out of the NFC South. More importantly, the Big East, with eight unremarkable squads that could stand beneath the same babushka, is there for the taking. Which means that seven years later, Daryl Gross might -- might -- be seen as a prophet.

“We have one of the toughest schedules in the country this season,” Gross acknowledged, “but Doug believes this will help the long-term success of the program. It will be difficult, but it will also hopefully create a season of amazing experiences.”

Who knows? Maybe, just maybe, Marrone’s group will win more games than the basketball team loses. Talk about amazing.

(Bud Poliquin’s columns, "To The Point" observations and "Morning Orange" reports appear virtually every day on syracuse.com. His work can also be regularly found on the pages of The Post-Standard newspaper. Additionally, Poliquin can be heard weekday mornings between 10 a.m.-12 noon on the sports-talk radio show, "Bud & The Manchild," on The Score 1260-AM. Poliquin can be reached at bpoliquin@syracuse.com)